Week 3 of Training

Week three complete and all going to schedule. Actually – whisper this – there are times it’s becoming just a bit boring.

What I find helps a lot in this circumstance is audiobooks. Sure, listening to music can make me run faster, but listening to someone read you a story can really help get you out there. Right now I’m listening to “Faceless Killers” by Henning Mankell. The fact that I want to know whether Inspector Wallander gets his man (I’m sure he will) makes the whole idea of going out for a run all the more palatable.

On the other hand, it makes actually getting out there a more involved process. I need to get the heart rate monitor strap appropriately clipped in place, the Garmin on the wrist, the phone in the pouch on the belt if I’m doing intervals (I need to learn how to use the Garmin for that), the iPod clipped onto the belt, the headphone cable routed through my clothes and the headphones in my lugs! Oh yes, I need to put my clothes on too… mustn’t forget that!

Finally I can get out. Just hope I’ve remembered the key…

Yesterday I photographed the Falkirk Parkrun; the photographs can be seen on my Flickr account. I wish that the Parkrun fitted in more easily with the training schedule, but the trainer was quite emphatic that if you’re training your body to run a long distance slowly, there’s little point in asking it to run a comparatively short distance fast.

On the other hand, he said, occasional half marathons are okay. I wonder if 15km is okay too? I did the DeVilla Forest 15k today, and really enjoyed it. A race report will follow…

As I completed the table below, I realised that this week I have crossed the 100 miles mark in training! Woot woot!